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Monday, July 8, 2013

So, yesterday (july 7th, '13) we started early going SF for our scheduled GoCar Tours at their kiosk in Union Square. We were coming from Oakland, and it would take 20 minutes to get there as per GPS. We were not sure of the traffic situation so we decided to go there early.

We are scheduled to pick up our Go Car at 10AM, and we reached the area 30 minutes early. We signed up forms, watched video tutorials, fitted our helmets, and we were good to go.

We were then asked to choose the faster one or the one that has slower speed. We choose the faster one. After a few quick instructions from the Go Car guy, we then started to go on the road. It looked like the hubby was driving too harsh from the start...and made me nervous! He said he isn't so comfortable driving the thing because the system is like driving a motorcycle. The break and the accelerator are all controlled by hand, so that the accelerator can go as drastic as it is when you press on it, and the break can be nerve wrecking.

Now, the worst part...as we reached the Chinatown, the GPS suddenly went off and we were completely lost! And the super worst part. As we tried to pull off the road for a stop to figure out where we are, the hubby didn't know how to park the Go Car in a stop mode so it wouldn't go forward and on the road! Nowhere to go, we tried calling their 800 no. and told them that the GPS stopped working but the lady on the phone didn't help us that much. She simply adivsed us to go back where were at when the GPS stopped, but we simply told her we didn't know where we came from since we are not from the area and we were completely relying on the GPS.

Also, there was a map provided on the car's dashboard just in case we are lost. It looks like a vintage map and quite blurred..duh! I couldn't even read the letters on it.

I tried to unbuckle and went at the back of it and opened the trunk of the car to get hubby's backpack where I had the brochure to find out if it can give us any helpful information..nope..nothing on it! I was so frantic as I went back to my seat and I completely forgot to close the car's trunk! My bad!

So, as I went back to my seat, I now had to alternate the hubby to press the break while he has to go out from the car and push it out from the parking spot since the car can't do backward mode.

GPS still not talking! The hubby started driving around and we ended up driving up a steep hill. It was probably like going up Lombard Street and we were stuck up at the middle of the hill because the car can no longer make it. lol! As the car is trying to gain its momentum, there was a car at our back honking at us. At first, I thought it's a police officer trying to pick us up to jail..wahahaha! Then he was telling us that the backpack fell from the trunk of our car. Oh my God...the camera and some valuable things were there.

So, off I jumped out of the car and had to run down that steep hill to recover it. It was probably like 500 meters away and the backpack was at the middle of the road.

As I was running down, there was a truck coming up the hill and I had to run at the middle of the road screaming at the top of my lungs saying "Stop. STOP" and waving my hands like crazy!! Thank God, the truck stopped! If it didn't, the back pack would surely be a piece of garbage with all our gadgets broken into bits of pieces!

After recovering the back pack, I had to run up the steep hill again, and I felt like I wanna pass out because I was running out of breath! As I got back in the car, hubby told me I had to continue driving up the hill til we reach the plain surface while he will be pushing it up. I had to take time to catch my breath and had to get my instructions on how to drive that thing because it is entirely different from a regular car. Gosh! This was crazy!

So, here came me driving and I was talking to my husband what will I do next...only to find out he wasn't pushing the car. He was just down the hill still struggling to climb up. I was mad! But that lasted in seconds of course...lol!

I stopped at the end of the hill but the car was still on a reclining position. So, hubby said I had to drive turning right unto the even road doing a sharp turn. Imagine that? I said, I can't do that! The road was busy and all the people were taking photos of the car (not me) and they said it's cute! If only did they know that we were having trouble and we were lost!

Anyway, I still had to do the sharp turn. I did and I went past by the lane, and hubby was shouting "stop!, stop!" The cable cars stopped! And they were all looking at me...huhuhuhu!

So, it was the hubby's turn to drive. We then mutually agreed to return to the kiosk using the google maps on my iphone....whoa! Thank God for iphones and google maps! We also had to cancel the 2-hour tour as we had spent an hour just trying to push that car without any GPS aid.

It was like we threw away our hard earned money for this, but we didn't want to risk our lives on the road for a car like this! We didn't get a refund, but charged us another 50 bucks for the cancellation! Ripped off! :((

Actually they asked us if we still would like to get another car so we can continue our tour...we both said NO! That was a nerve wrecking experience, and that's more than enough of a nightmare!

Phew! Off we went back to the hotel! My muscles were trembling...hahahaha!

What an experience. This was my first time having the hell of an experience instead of having fun. As a traveler, it is always expected so to speak. I am still getting fun in some other ways anyway.